Youth Development (Socorro County)

Youth serve in leadership roles at the club and county level by performing the following duties: Elected Officer, Event Coordinator, Pledge Leader, Caller, and Committee Chair/member. A district wide training is provided to all County Council Officer training them in the following areas: Leadership, Teamwork, Decision Making, Communication and Meth Awareness. Each Council was given the opportunity to work with an agent from another county to set their goals for the year. Following the district wide training, the county council officers were expected to train the club officer in their particular county. Socorro County Council Officer trained club officers on Leadership, Teamwork, Decision Making, Communication, and Parliamentary Procedure. 85% of youth actively involved in County and Club leadership gained knowledge and skills related to decision making, communication, social skills, accepting differences, leadership, contributing to group effort, teamwork, healthy lifestyle choices and goal setting.

Every club in Socorro County is required to complete a community service project sometime throughout the year. Examples of community service projects were: Christmas tree set up at Good Sam’s; game days at Senior Center, served lunch at Senior Center during Spring Break and once a month during the summer, recycling aluminum can around town, Food Check-out and highway trash clean-up. 8 Socorro County Youth also applied for 4-H Community Service Scholarships which paid for them to attend a State Event. Youth increased their knowledge and skills related to generosity and service learning, contributions to group efforts and responsible citizenship as evidenced by willingness to serve, appreciation of service opportunities and youth assuming leadership roles related to service. Results were reported during club meetings, in member’s record books, and in member’s final scholarship reports to the State 4-H Office.

This year we had one of our former 4-H members pass away in a horrific automobile accident, it was amazing to see the 4-H community come together to help an amazing family in need. 4-H members prepared the San Antonio Fire Station for a dinner following the funeral service and a month after the funeral they came together again and raised $6,000 for the family to help pay for funeral expenses. Youth truly gave of their Head, Heart, Hands and Health as evidenced by their contributions to group effort, teamwork, character, service learning, and cooperation skills they showed during this difficult time.

Record books are one thing that is dreaded by the majority of our 4-H members. We have done things to minimize the heartburn for these youth. This year the Agents hosted several Record book workdays where youth could come to the Extension Office and get one on one help form the Extension Agents. Youth and parents were very appreciative of the help and we saw a 15% increase in the number of record books turned in. Through filling out record books youth are learning a variety of life skills such as responsibility, record keeping, critical thinking, goal setting, and planning/organizing. By completing their record book youth are then eligible for awards at the Annual 4-H Banquet. Every member who completes a record book receives a year completion pin and projects pins for the projects that they completed for the year.

National 4-H Week: During National 4-H Week Agents promote the 4-H program in hopes of recruiting new members. 4-H banners are displayed in various business windows around town. The 4-H County Council Officers hosted a 4-H Fun Day at the City of Socorro Youth Center. Council Officers lead a variety of activities that taught youth teamwork, communication and discussion making skills. In addition, the Agents had a 4-H Bowl competition, testing the youth’s knowledge of the 4-H program. 25 youth attended the Fun Day and increased mastery in leadership, teamwork, character, problem solving, communication and cooperation.

Stitch and Spoon Camp: On July 27-29 the Socorro County Extension Office hosted a Stitch and Spoon Camp at the Socorro Community Kitchen. The camp was limited to 20 youth, because of the nature of the projects and space limitations in the kitchen. As with the name “Stitch and Spoon”, youth learned the basics of Sewing and Cooking. 16 girls, 2 boys and 6 volunteer leaders attended the camp. The youth were split in half; half went to sewing and the other half in the kitchen with them switching after lunch. The first group in the kitchen were required to cook everyone lunch; Lupita Rincones, ICAN Nutrition Educator, taught the kids about kitchen safety, proper nutrition and ways to make their meals healthier. The afternoon session learned about different cooking utensils and what they’re used for, proper measuring techniques, and most importantly how to read a recipe. They then made chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and biscuits out of the 4-H Baking project book. On the sewing side, the youth learned the parts of a sewing machine, how thread a machine, sewing a straight line, curvy lines, corners, and circles. To practice these skills the youth made scrunchies and tote bags utilizing the patterns out of the 4-H Sewing project book. All items made at the Stitch and Spoon camp were entered in the County Fair with all 1st place items going on to the NMSF.
Through these activities youth have learned several life skills. Some of these have included:
Heart: Relating
• Communication- Youth had to listen carefully to the directions in order for their project to come out correctly. They also had to communicate with others in their group so everyone knew what was going on.
Head: Managing
• Planning/Organizing- Youth learned to plan and organize things by reading a recipe/pattern to determine what items were needed and how much was needed. Youth learned how to plan ahead to help prevent messing up their project.
• Goal Setting- Youth learn to goal set by setting goals about what their end product would be, how hard they were going to work to get to that end product and determining what steps were needed to get to that end product.
Health: Living
• Healthy Lifestyle Choices- Youth learned proper nutrition and healthy eating habits. They learned about the Food Guide Pyramid and proper serving sizes.
Being
• Self-esteem- Youth increased their self-esteem from the beginning of the camp, because they didn’t think they could do it. They were all very excited to see their end product and in turn receive ribbons for their work at the county fair.